The newest JCTV programing is coming to a computer near you. With online social media more prevalent in everyday life, station manager Gloria Enloe said JCTV has now gotten on board with the movement by adding some new platforms.

Enloe said that close to six months ago, she and others at JCTV decided to launch a Facebook page for the station. But just two weeks ago, Enloe said, the station took the next step when they added a JCTV YouTube station to the fold.

Gloria Enloe watches as Dan Yeager solders a cable at the JCTV studio at Lincoln University. The station has recently begun posting programming on YouTube. Stephen Brooks/News Tribune

“Since we’ve switched to DVDs, we’ve noticed that people are giving short programs that are maybe five or 10 minutes in length,” Enloe said. “We run those throughout the day but, since they are so short, we thought that they would be a good medium for our online platform.”

While Enloe made it clear that this is not to replace the television platform, she said she is hopeful that the online viewership will possibly help add to the television audience.

“I think it is a way to reach out to our students and the younger people in Jefferson City,” Enloe said. “A lot of them do use YouTube exclusively, or at least a majority of the time.”

So far, there are only two items that have been added to the YouTube channel titled “JCTVAccess” — a video from Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan about the founding of Lincoln University and a video detailing the remodeling JCTV’s studio underwent during the summer.

But Enloe said she anticipates there will be more programing available soon, including videos produced by David Luther, Jefferson City Public Schools’ director of school-community relations, highlighting different aspects of the school system, like the district’s teacher of the year.

Official outlets are not the only ones that will be allowed to submit their materials for publication on JCTV’s new YouTube Channel, along with its original format on television.

“As a public access station, we pretty much have to take everything that the public gives us,” Enloe said.

In addition to the submitted materials, Enloe said she is currently working on finding ways to break up the shows that the station traditionally shows during regular programming into smaller segments to make uploading to YouTube more manageable.

One of the biggest advantages to the new system is the immediacy it provides to Enloe and the other employees at the station. Because of programming restraints, items that are aired on JCTV are scheduled as many as two weeks before they air. But with the YouTube channel, that is not as much of a problem for Enloe and company.

“If we get a video that we are really excited about and want to get on right away, we can just go ahead and put that on our YouTube channel,” Enloe said.